RFID stands for Radio
Frequency IDentification,
a technology that uses tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand
to track items at a distance. RFID
"spy chips" have been hidden in the packaging of Gillette razor products
and in other products you might buy at a local Wal-Mart, Target, or Tesco
- and they are already being used to spy on people.

Each tiny chip is hooked up to an antenna that picks
up electromagnetic energy beamed at it from a reader device. When it picks
up the energy, the chip sends back its unique
identification number to the reader device, allowing the item to
be remotely identified. Spy chips can beam back information anywhere from
a couple of inches to up to 20 or 30 feet away.

Shown at left is a magnified image of
actual tag found in Gillette Mach3 razor blades.

Note: The chip appears as the tiny black
square component. The coil of wires surrounding the chip is the
antenna, which transmits your information to a reader device, which
can be located anywhere!

Some of the world's largest product manufacturers
have been plotting behind closed doors since 1999 to develop and commercialize
this technology. If they are not opposed, their plan is to use these remote-readable
spy chips to replace the bar code.

RFID tags are NOT an "improved bar code" as the proponents
of the technology would like you to believe. RFID
technology differs from bar codes in three important ways:

1. With today's bar code technology, every can of
Coke has the same UPC or bar code number as every other can (a can of
Coke in Toronto has the same number as a can of Coke in Topeka). With
RFID, each individual can of Coke would have a unique ID number which
could be linked to the person buying it
when they scan a credit card or a frequent shopper card (i.e., an "item
registration system").

2. Unlike a bar code, these chips can
be read from a distance, right through your clothes, wallet, backpack
or purse -- without your knowledge or consent -- by anybody with
the right reader device. In a way, it gives strangers x-ray vision powers
to spy on you, to identify both you and the things you're wearing and
carrying.

3. Unlike the bar code, RFID could
be bad for your health. RFID supporters envision a world where
RFID reader devices are everywhere - in stores, in floors, in doorways,
on airplanes -- even in the refrigerators and medicine cabinets of our
own homes. In such a world, we and our children would be continually
bombarded with electromagnetic energy. Researchers do not know
the long-term health effects of chronic exposure to the energy emitted
by these reader devices.

Many huge corporations, including Philip Morris, Procter
and Gamble, and Wal-Mart, have begun experimenting with RFID spy chip
technology. Gillette is leading the pack,
and recently placed an order for up to 500
million RFID tags from a company called "Alien
Technology" (we kid you not). These big companies envision a day when
every single product on the face of the planet is tracked with RFID spy
chips!

As consumers we have no way of knowing which packages
contain these chips. While some chips are visible inside a package (see
our pictures of Gillette spy chips), RFID
chips can be well hidden. For example they can be sewn into the
seams of clothes, sandwiched between layers of cardboard, molded into
plastic or rubber, and integrated into consumer package design.

This technology is rapidly evolving and becoming more
sophisticated. Now RFID spy chips can even be printed, meaning the
dot on a printed letter "i" could be used to track you. In addition,
the tell-tale copper antennas commonly seen attached to RFID chips can
now be printed with conductive ink, making them nearly
imperceptible. Companies are even experimenting with making the
product packages themselves serve as antennas.

As you can see, it could soon be virtually impossible
for a consumer to know whether a product or package contains an RFID spy
chip. For this reason, CASPIAN (the creator of this web site) is proposing
federal labeling legislation, the RFID
Right to Know Act, which would require complete disclosures on any
consumer products containing RFID devices.

We believe the public has an absolute right to know
when they are interacting with technology that could affect their health
and privacy.

For additional information, see "RFID:
Tracking Everything Everywhere", an excerpt from an article by CASPIAN
founder Katherine Albrecht, Ed.M. that appeared in the Summer 2002 issue
of the Denver University Law Review.